Known brake control devices typically include a support body to be fixed to the handle bar—to the left for actuating the front brake or to the right for actuating the rear brake—and a brake lever pivoted on the support body for actuating the brake through the pull action of a normally sheathed inextensible cable, when it is pulled towards the handle bar.
In known devices, because the brake cable must be pulled away from the handle bar, the brake cable head is attached to the brake lever on the opposed side, with respect to its pivot, than the actuation area on which the cyclist's fingers other than the thumb rest when he/she grips the handle bar.
In this respect it is to be noted that the resisting arm must be long enough to impose the necessary stroke to the brake cable fixed to the brake lever, considering that the swinging amplitude of the lever is determined by the opening and closing of the hand on the handle bar.
In particular in the case of integrated control devices for controlling also a bicycle derailleur and/or in the case of control devices for a curved handle bar, typical of racing bicycles, the support body is also suitable to be handled by the cyclist during travel, as an alternative to gripping on the handle bar, to allow the bike to be driven. To this end, the support body has an ergonomic shape, comprising an upwards protrusion in its front zone. The cyclist rests the hand palm on the proximal surface of the protrusion or on the upper surface of the support body, in abutment against the protrusion, with the fingers other than the thumb resting on the front surface of the brake lever.
It is also apparent that, even in such alternative driving conditions, the simultaneous ready accessibility to the brake lever for the braking operations should be ensured.
Instead, in the case of the known control devices, in such driving conditions gripping on the control support body, the braking results difficult, especially for cyclists with small hands, because the hand fingers rest on the brake lever essentially at the pivot of the brake lever itself and even also on the same side where the brake cable head is fixed. In the case of known control devices for curved handle bar, more particularly, the brake cable extends along the upper surface of the support body and the pivot of the brake lever is placed well below the line of the brake cable. In the condition gripping on the support body, the hand fingers rest on the upper zone of the lever, namely at or even above the lever pivot.
In other words, with the known control devices it is not possible for the cyclist, from the above mentioned driving condition gripping on the support body, to apply power with all four fingers, and in any case the applied power acts in a less efficient way because the power arm is rather short. The braking efficiency is thus reduced and sometimes the cyclist is forced to move the hand downwards partly leaving the grip on the control device.
The technical problem at the basis of the present invention is to overcome the above mentioned drawbacks of the prior art by providing a bicycle brake control device wherein the actuation is particularly efficient not only from the driving condition gripping on the handle bar, but also from the driving condition resting on the support body of the control device itself.